10 teachers win CitiSuccess awards
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
For Sudarno, a biology teacher, winning a Rp 5 million award from the CitiSuccess Fund was the icing on the cake of a long teaching career spent trying to encourage his students to actively participate in the educational process.
Launched in May 2004, the CitiSuccess Fund has so far provided a total of Rp 665 million to 133 teachers to encourage them to come up with fun and creative study activities for their students. It is part of the Citibank Peka community program, run in association with the Indonesian Institute of Hope.
Nine more teachers were awarded CitiSuccess Fund grants of Rp 5 million each on Thursday for coming up with the best creative teaching programs.
Jangan Buta Hanya Karena Cinta (Don't go blind over love) was the title of the program Sudarno entered in the competition.
"I chose the name Jangan Buta Karena Cinta because many teenagers are blinded by love and fall into the drugs and AIDS traps," he said.
Sudarno is also active in the Pelita Indonesia Foundation, a non-governmental organization that has given him extensive knowledge and experience of youth, drugs and AIDS issues
He said the program directly involved 40 randomly chosen students, as well as physical education and counseling teachers as they were considered the teachers who were closest to the students.
"The program focuses on educating students about HIV and drugs through informal discussions that promote interaction between educators and students," said Mochammad Yasin, the principal of the YMIK senior high school in South Jakarta, where Sudarno teaches and developed his program.
"He (Sudarno) is very close to the students and teaches them using jokes and games to get their attention. On the last day of the four-day program, the students were posted at railway stations to hand out red ribbons to the public while providing them with AIDS prevention information," Yasin added.
The 10 teachers who received awards were judged based on the level of interaction between them and their students during the educational process, how the program could enrich the knowledge of students and how students and teachers reflected on program activities.
"We selected 10 of the best programs, which we and the judges considered to be the most creative, meaning they showed how capable the teachers were in creating interactive study sessions," said Citigroup Indonesian Corporate Affairs head Ditta Amahorseya.
The schools in which the 10 winning teachers work also received Rp 10 million each to support their educational work.
Ten runners-up were granted Rp 1 million each for participating in the creation of fun and creative study activities for their students.
Meanwhile, Henny Supolo, an education observer and one of the judges, said, "The education process should produce a well- rounded person who is capable of facing a world that is full of challenges and is rapidly changing. The old paradigm that regards the teacher as being everything and that students should only sit passively in class is now considered irrelevant".
Regional director of Hope Indonesia, Charles Ham, said the number of participants as well as the quality of the proposals submitted during the competition showed that Indonesian teachers had the capability and drive to achieve progress. (005)
10 winners of best creative teaching awards
No. City Teacher School
1 Jakarta Sudarno SMA YMIK 1 South Jakarta
2 Jakarta Cecep Kurnia Sogoz SMA Islam Al Azhar 4 Bekasi
3 Jakarta Johan Effendi SMAN 17 West Jakarta
4 Bandung Dewi Listia SMA Pasundan 5
5 Bandung Lucia Rina Widiastuti SMA St. Aloysius
6 Semarang Evi S. Handayani SMA Nusa Bhakti
7 Semarang Yusdaim SMA Islam Hidayatullah
8 Surabaya Hirman Pramono SMAN 16
9 Surabaya Supri Harwanto SMA Kawung 2
10 Surabaya Maria Rosalia Retnowati SMA Santa Maria